Equal Protection

February 19, 1989|By Ruth Lazar.

EVANSTON — The legality of abortion is not a question of fetus viability, religion, moral values or right to anything. It is quite simply haves vs. have-nots. Ms. Have does not need Roe v. Wade. She can take a trip to Europe, have a safe abortion and a lovely vacation, return home in good health.

The Ms. Have-Nots who do not have the funds, or do not wish to risk the danger of an illegal operation, practice self-insertion of a willow twig, take dangerous drugs, throw themselves down a flight of stairs and, if none of this produces a spontaneous abortion, give birth to a burden, an unloved baby. If the baby is fortunate, it is adopted by a loving couple and only later wonders why its mother rejected it. If the baby is not adopted, it grows up unloved, unloving, unhappy and quite possibly, therefore, dangerous to society.

Roe v. Wade simply affords equal protection under the law to all citizens of the United States; isn`t that the American ethic?